Small World
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: AU modern day fic. Henry Tudor is on the rooftops talking to a teenage girl about his adult life and where all things went wrong.


"What is a young girl like you doing up here?"

"To think."

"About what?"

"Life and whether or not to jump. What about you, old man? What brought you up here?"

"The same thing, whether to jump or not. A young girl like you shouldn't have to think such thoughts. You have so much to experience."

"And you experienced too much?"

"I made too many mistakes."

"Like what?"

"You don't want to know."

"Try me, I may look young but I've been through a hell lot and I bet I can be a good listener."

"All right, but please...don't judge me too harshly."

HRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Henry Tudor the Eighth was the owner of Tudor Rose Corporation, husband to a daughter of the Hapsburg Media Empire and father of a quiet intelligent girl. He had money, loving family and very little to worry about. But he was not happy. His younger sister had eloped with his best friend causing him to not only disown her but to fire said best friend and this had opened his eyes to how much he didn't love his wife.

Katherine Aragon was from a small branch of the Hapsburg family but she had just as much power and right to the many media companies. She brought in a lot of money for the Tudor Rose Corporation when she was supposed to marry his brother Arthur (who died in a car accident two months before the wedding) instead she married Henry and had been for ten years almost. Mary Rose Tudor was their only living child as Katherine had given up hope of ever having another without miscarriage. Henry had lost interest in his wife and Mary was away at boarding school for most of the time. Home life was awful, however business life was flourishing under the new board that Henry put together, mostly made out of Thomas's – there was Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell and Thomas Howard. All of them extremely good advisors. There was also one female on his board, she was head of the Press Relations department and gave the best advice of them all. She was also the youngest on the board as well as the only female.

Her name was Anne Boleyn and she was Thomas Howard's niece. She had graduated from one of the universities in London and knew her stuff very well. She was intelligent, beautiful, passionate and fierce. When she took the floor, his eyes never left her. She was curvy, dark hair tumbling down her back and beautiful powerful eyes that stood out on her pale creamy skin. He had his affairs before and he planned to have another one with this woman right in front of him wearing stylish suits and had a powerful aura around her.

So he tried to seduce her. It didn't work. He wrote her love letters and naughty emails and sent her gifts. It didn't work. He was on the verge of desperation when he confessed his love for her and to his surprise she smiled at him warmly and told him she loved him too.

But she refused to be involved with a married man.

So he set out to divorce Katherine. He didn't love her, she did nothing but complain about being bored and Anne was there waiting for him.

Midway through his divorce which Katherine was being stubborn about Anne had convinced him to hire Charles again. He was glad because he missed his best friend ever so much.

"Henry, I just don't get it," Charles said holding up the tabloid declaring his divorce. "You're a Catholic, you don't believe in divorce."

"No, my grandmother was Catholic and forced the religion on our household. Katherine is Catholic and a devoted one, trust me all she does is pray before we go to bed, it's very off putting," Henry corrected his friend. "My marriage was arranged Charles, it was never like yours and Marie's. There's no love between us. I have found my one true love and I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Charles sighed, "I'll do my best after all I am the company's lawyer."

"The company's best lawyer."

Katherine was in tears when she signed the divorce papers. She had been told it was Mary or Henry and she had no choice but to pick Mary. If she had picked Henry then he would have moved out and taken Mary and refuse all contact to her. He would try to corrupt her precious Mary's soul and she just couldn't do that. It was a difficult choice between two evils and in the end she damned her husband's soul.

"Remember Henry," she said softly, "I will always be your wife in the eyes of God."

"You're not my wife in my eyes or the eyes of the law," he said coldly. Mary, who had come home from boarding school to see this, started to cry herself and she ran to Henry beating him in the chest with her little hands. She was just ten years old. "My pearl, my precious pearl, stop your tears," Henry begged, he hated to see his little girl cry. She was the only good thing that ever came out of his marriage with Katherine. "Everything will be all right; you can still see both me and your mother."

"I never want to see you again!" Mary screamed. "You have sent your soul to hell! You have broken Mama's heart! You are no father of mine! I am not your pearl!"

"Mary," he said feeling his heart break a little. He tried to reach out and hold her but she pushed him away and took several steps away from him. The look on her face was sheer disgust and his heart broke even more. "Pearl..."

She turned away from him and ran into her mother's arms.

He never saw her after that. At least, not as a child.

HRHRHRHRHRHRHR

"I have a sister that's Catholic."

"You do?"

"Yeah...she's married to a bastard though. I haven't seen her for a while."

"Part of the reason why you're up here?"

"Yeah..."

"What did she do? Or was it the husband?"

"The husband...and I rather not talk about it just yet. So you married the woman of your dreams, how was that a mistake?"

"It wasn't my marriage to Anne that was a mistake. It was my treatment to her after our first year of marriage...and I never got to see Mary. Katherine kept her away from me and once she died Mary never contacted me."

"What did she die of?"

"Ovarian Cancer."

"Nasty."

"Yeah."

"My mother...she's in a coma. Car accident, three years ago. She hasn't woken up yet."

"I'm sorry. What about your father?"

"Never knew him."

"I never got to know my other daughter."

"Why not?"

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Almost immediately after the wedding Anne was pregnant. At first it was all exciting and they just couldn't wait, but then Anne got really enthusiastic about it. She read the books, refused sex, ate what the doctors recommended and was no longer fun as she used to be. It got worse when Elizabeth was born. It wasn't that he didn't love Elizabeth; she was his jewel as Mary was his pearl, but he didn't love the new Anne that came with Elizabeth.

New Anne was all about Elizabeth. There would be no nannies or night staff to take care of Elizabeth because Anne wanted to do it all. There was less work and helping with the business because Elizabeth came first. There was less sex because Elizabeth might see or hear. Anne had changed from her dark intelligent ambitious sexual beauty into a mother and it didn't suit her.

He was no longer sexually satisfied.

Mrs Carey – his secretary and sister in law – had left to get remarried to one of the accountants and left the company. Therefore he had to find a new secretary and Charles directed him to an old law student's little sister who was having trouble to find a job. Jane Seymour was a small petite blonde woman with delicate features. She was a different type of beauty from Anne.

And so he began to fall in love.

Anne was so enraptured with Elizabeth that she wasn't aware of him courting another woman until Charles Brandon appeared with divorce papers. It allowed her to have the house, a percentage of the company for when Elizabeth hit legal age and joint custody. She turned round and said she would sign but only if she had sole custody of her daughter.

A little negotiation and a few slaps on Anne's side of things and Henry got rid of Anne, only to lose another daughter. The same day he heard that Katherine had died and Mary, still refusing to see him even though it had been three years, was now to live with an aunt.

His wedding with Jane was a church wedding but not a Catholic ceremony. Everyone was there apart from the Boleyn faction of the Howard family, Mary and a few workers that had been loyal to Anne. It took a year before Jane fell pregnant this was mostly because Henry and Jane were too busy dealing with an economic crisis to think of sexual pleasure. They seeked out platonic comfort with one another and Henry had been for once content with just cuddling a woman. She was most surely his true love.

He was waiting anxiously outside of the birthing room. He arrived late and instead of him inside holding Jane's hand it was a sister of hers and her father. The doctor came out with John and Dorothy looking solemn and – the Seymour's – grieved.

"Mr Tudor? I am so sorry, we tried everything we could possibly do and were unable to save your wife..." the rest of the words weren't heard. Henry was so focused on the fact that his sweet innocent Jane was dead. She had been filled with every virtue he could think of and always had a smile for everyone.

"Heart failure," John murmured to his sons, "we always knew she had a weak heart..." he droned the rest out as he sat there unable to apprehend that Jane was dead. "Yes...a little boy...wanted to call it Edward..."

It was like a dark strand had crawled into his body and strangled his heart and blurred everything before him. He saw nothing but the image of Jane. He couldn't see how she could die; she was young, beautiful, modest, healthy, sweet, innocent...

"I am so sorry Mr Tudor but you are not in the right state of mind to be in custody of your son Edward Henry Tudor, instead we grant custody to Edward John Seymour until a social worker has declared you fit for custody..."

He lost his children and his wives. What is he to do now?

Poor sweet innocent Jane...

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

"Well, damn you are a bastard."

"Thanks."

"Don't be snarky. It's one thing to cheat on wife number one but to do the exact same thing to wife number two? Good thing wife number three died before you could do the same to her."

"I wouldn't have! I loved Jane, she was virtuous and sweet and a maiden in every way."

"Bullshit."

"I beg your pardon?"

"She allowed you to 'court' her when you were still married to Anne and happily married you the day after the divorce was finalised? That's not sweet and maidenly, that's a home wrecker."

"She wasn't like that."

"No but her brother is."

"You know her brother?"

"Thomas Seymour? He was my music teacher."

"Really? Well...small world."

"Yeah, small world."

"Why didn't you like Thomas?"

"He...I was fourteen and pretty...I wasn't completely unwilling but I...I wasn't interested in him either. He half emotionally blackmailed me and half seduced me. I was overwhelmed..."

"He had sex with you when you were fourteen? And he was your teacher?"

"Right on the school desk. Several times. I didn't like it much, was messy and icky."

"And you didn't say anything?"

"Me and my Mum aren't that close. She had a high profile job and so I was raised mostly by a Nanny, Kat I called her, and she liked Mr Seymour. So I never really had anyone to complain to."

"What happened?"

"A teacher walked in on us. There was all these questionings by the teacher, the headmaster, the police and then of course the Court. He's been put on that list, never to teach again and good riddance to him."

"There's something else you're not telling me."

"I...I had to have an abortion after that."

"Fucking bastard! That man is near my son, Edward, the older brother, has custody of him!"

"I wouldn't worry. Mr Seymour likes his girls' not little boys."

"So you don't think Jane is innocent because of her brother?"

"No I don't think she's innocent because I wasn't that innocent."

"You were barely a teenager. It wasn't your fault."

"I like to think that but I don't think that's entirely true."

"You're going to hate me."

"Why?"

"Because I started an affair with a very young lady fresh out of school. She was a Katherine too...but everyone called her Kitty."

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

He met Kitty Howard at a club after a stressful day of work. She was pretty, wore skimpy clothing and was willing to do anything. They flirted, drank, danced and then he brought her home with him and she hadn't left since. He made her his secretary (though a lot of work started to not be done) and began to get into that enjoyment of spending money again. He was still unable to get hold of custody of Edward though he visited his little boy regularly.

He was enjoying life again. Something that hadn't happened since Jane.

Kitty begged him to go to a family party, a cousin was getting engaged and the entire family had to go to the Lambeth estate to celebrate. Thomas Howard was most accommodating and so were his many children, nieces, nephews and siblings. Apart from his stubborn nieces Anne and Mary and disgraced nephew George.

"I never expected you to go from attentive husband to Jane to sugar daddy to Kitty," Anne said coolly when he walked up to her.

"My relationship with Kitty has nothing to do with you," he said just as coldly.

"Of course it does. Kitty is my baby cousin; I babysat her when I was her age!" Anne snapped. "If you're going to have sexual relations with her you better not break her heart like you broke mine and Katherine's!"

"Where's Elizabeth?" he asked, "is she here?"

"She's with Mary."

"Your sister?" he said scanning the room for the less pretty Boleyn sister.

"No you're daughter."

"My Mary? Why is she here?"

"She's not here; she is at my home looking after Elizabeth since the Nanny has the day off."

"You actually hired a Nanny?"

"I had to work Henry, how else would I give Elizabeth everything she needs? Kat is a cousin of mine with a child care degree, she's here now because this is her cousin too and they cared for each other deeply."

"And my Mary offered to babysit?"

"Your Mary and I are on polite terms. She will never forgive me for 'luring' you away from her mother but she would put it all behind her if I allow her access to her little sister. She sometimes takes Elizabeth to see Edward I believe."

"I was never told."

"Mary is an adult, you were never there for Elizabeth and Edward isn't in your custody. Why do you need to be told?"

"Because I'm their father, goddaminit!"

"You never acted like it, so why start now? Continue being Kitty's sugar daddy, you're better at that."

"You've become bitter Anne."

"Only because you made me this way."

He found a distraction from that party not long afterwards. Not with Kitty who he enjoyed the sex and good fun but with a new member of the marketing department. Anna Cleaves was a German girl, not unattractive but not very pretty either. She had a thick accent and worked extremely hard. Charles introduced her at a poker night that was usually men's only. They were friends during her year in America for university and he promised her to teach her to play cards when they met up again in Tudor Rose Corporation.

After catching on how to play, Anna cleared them all out and laughed not mockingly but friendly and sweetly at them. Henry befriended her quickly and found her easy to talk to, he soon introduced her to Kitty and she had taken an older sister role in Kitty's life. Anna, Charles, Kitty and him led such a beautiful golden life together. Filled with laughter, enjoyment and friendship.

It ended in a shattering way when he walked in on Kitty in bed with Thomas Culpepper.

"You whore! You slut! You slag!" he roared and screamed as he yanked her out of the bed and hauled her out into the hallway. "How dare you? Did I not give you what you need? Did I not give into every whim and want and desire? Have I not shown you the love you deserved? How could you?"

Kitty threw back her blonde hair. "Like you weren't sleeping with Anna!" she snarled.

He was a little taken back. "Anna is my friend," he said quieter than before, "a sister to me."

"You liked her more than me," Kitty said furiously as she banged on his chest like Mary did at the age of ten. "You talked to her more, you treated her like an actual person and I was just your little toy! You're selfish and ugly and mean! It's no wonder Anne left you! It's no wonder your children never want anything to do with you! You're a monster!"

He was filled with rage and wasn't thinking clearly. The girl he loved and cared for was saying such hateful things. Not even Anne was so cruel and to bring his own children into it...

He hadn't been thinking. He just pushed her away from him. He had forgotten that the stairs were directly behind her. That his room was stupidly so close to the stairs.

She screamed as she fell down them and the sickening crunch told him that she broke something.

"

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

"But she was all right in the end?"

"Yeah, it was just a broken arm. She was lucky...but her family had cut all dealings with me and my company. Lost a hell lot of money and respect from all my associates."

"What about Anna?"

"She is still my dearest friend. Very supportive, like Charles is. So I'm not entirely alone."

"I don't hate you."

"You don't?"

"No, there are a lot worse men out there than you."

"Like Thomas Seymour?"

"Like Phillip."

"Who's he?"

"My sister's husband. After Mum's accident there was the topic of where I was going to live. I wanted to stay with Kat but the social had problems with that. My father is...well just not there. I don't know if he's aware I exist. So my sister took me in."

"Nice of her."

"Yeah, especially since she's a half sister and not from my mother. But you see nice sister comes with horrible husband."

"What did he do to you?"

"He liked to come into my room after my sister was asleep and take my bed covers off and sometimes join me in bed. Other times he looked at me...many...many times he would touch me."

"You're crying."

"It's not something I can talk about without tears."

"I suppose not. What did you do?"

"When my sister refused to believe it...I just ran. Packed a bag and ran off."

"Where did you go?"

"Well, first I went to my uncle and his civil partner Mark. They were nice and all but I was a little uncomfortable. Not because I'm homophobic or anything, but because I felt like an intruder. They had a happy little life, nothing to do with the vicious world my mother's family live in...So I left."

"And then?"

"I went to my aunt's and uncle's. They were very welcoming and tried everything to make me feel like I was at home. I had a cousin just a couple years younger than me and we got along great...but I felt like I was burden after time. They were very poor because my aunt had married below her in my grandfather's mind and was cut off. So I left once more."

"And then what? Did you go to another relative's home?"

"No...I went to the streets. Was barely there for a day when this lady offered me a room in return for a little errand work."

"That was nice."

"She was lovely until it turned out her boyfriend and husband to be was Thomas Seymour."

"Jesus Christ, really small world. Kate Parr is my therapist!"

"You're right...really small world."

"So you left Kate's and then...?"

"Went to the streets properly. Picked up with this gang of sorts. Nothing major bad like those gangs that kill. Just cheeky smart kids that like to con here and there. Robert Dudley got me into it, he's gorgeous. Dark eyes and hair, charming smile..."

"Someone sounds smitten."

"I fancy him and he's a great friend."

"But?"

"After Seymour and Phillip? I don't want to go there just now."

"Understandable"

"So...Kate was your therapist?"

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Kate Parr was beautiful in a mature confident intellectual sense. A lot like Katherine Aragon, his first wife, only she worked for a living and didn't rely on any family relation to get her as far as she gone. She had been known for several essays and was proclaimed by the rich and wealthy to be the best therapist in the world.

"Tell me about your childhood," she commanded in a soft and gentle voice making it sound more like a request.

"Nothing much to say..." he mumbled.

"What was your parents' marriage like?"

"It was arranged, like my first wife's and mine. Mother was...she was shy and quiet. She lost her father, her brothers and uncle all to a car crash. Her mother and my grandmother thought to merge the two companies together through a marriage between her and Father. He was cold and tight-fisted but...I always sort of get the impression they did love each other. Even if it was just a little bit."

"You lost your brother at a young age and your older sister."

"Arthur...it wasn't fair. It's like the family is doomed to have car accidents and I know Mother never got over it...why she..."

"You were the one that found her body?"

"No...The servants did but I was the one to hear them scream..."

"And your sister?"

"Maggie got married and never came back. She was horrible, one of those bitchy society girls but she was still my sister..."

"And Marie was your younger sister. How is she?"

"Happy. She was so young during everything that...I don't think she ever understood it all. She just carried on in her little bubble world and fell in love and got married and lived happily ever after."

"While you were stuck with the stress of taking over the company, marrying your brother's wife and fulfilling everything your father wanted you to be?"

"Yeah..."

Sessions like this continued. He talked his childhood to death. Talked about his sex life to death. Talked about his relationships and friendships and work life to death as well. This woman soon knew everything there is about him and testified for him to gain joint custody of Edward.

Life suddenly looked brighter.

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

"Sounds like you resolved everything."

"Yeah?"

"So what brought you up here?"

"Mary contacted me."

"And?"

"Elizabeth had gone missing."

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

Although he had found the peace he was looking for, Henry had no idea where to start in contacting Mary and Elizabeth. He was already had joint custody and was working on a case in regaining full custody of Edward back from his brother in law. After all Edward was beginning to feel comfortable with him and wanted to live with him properly.

He didn't even know if Mary kept his name or changed it to Aragon or gotten married. Anne was probably guarding Elizabeth even more after the Kitty incident which no Howard would talk to him after that. It was hopeless. It really did seem hopeless.

He just never expected to have what he wanted to fall in his lap. Not this time.

One day a hysterical Mary came running into his office and threw her arms around him. He knew she was Mary though it had been years since he saw her. She had his eyes but her mother's pale complexion and looks. Her hair was lighter than Katherine's but it was similar to hers when she was a young woman.

"My pearl, my beautiful little girl, what happened? Why are you here? Why are you crying?" he murmured, half worried and half awed that she had come without him apologising.

"I-I-it's all my fault, I lost Elizabeth! I didn't listen to her! I married a scumbag and he won't leave me alone because he's Catholic too! I'm going to damn my soul forever because I don't want to be married to him anymore. Daddy, I'm so sorry, please, help me!" Mary sobbed.

"Shh...Shh...Start from the beginning," he said gently.

And so she did.

Afterwards he got Anna to get them some coffees and introduced Mary to her. They got on fairly well and Anna gave the comfort of a mother that Mary must miss so much. Then he got a private detective to start looking for Elizabeth and Charles onto the case of getting a divorce for Mary. He then offered her job here and his home for the time being. She declined the second one but accepted the first. It was a start and he knew she was going to live with Anna who she bonded very quickly with.

Once he saw Mary and Anna home, he went to a pub and drank for a while. He thought of his little girls and he wondered what could have happened to Anne to make Elizabeth live with Mary for the time being. He took a walk and without thinking he ended up on the roof of his own office building. So high up and towering over most of the city and giving a beautiful view of it all.

But there was someone on his roof. A young girl sitting on the edge without a care in the world.

"What is a young girl like you doing up here?"

HRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHRHR

"So..."

"So..."

"Are you going to jump?"

"No, what about you, kid?"

"No...You made me think. I'm going to go and visit my Mum, and then I'm going to go back to my sister and have a long talk with her."

"And then?"

"I'll go back to school. Get my education, like Anna, and make myself someone important. I might take over the world."

"Good plan...What's your name, kid?"

"People call me Beth."

"Beth...that's a nice name."

She turned round to face him. Her red hair was blowing out of her face and into the wind; she looked so much like Anne that it scared him a little. She had her dark soul hooking eyes, her pale soft skin, her kissable lips and little upturned nose and her developing body looked it'll be as curvy and impressive as Anne's is.

"But my real name is Elizabeth, Elizabeth Tudor."

_Author's Note: first thing first the Phillip in this is not Anne of Cleves cousin who we all love and adore. The Phillip is the Spanish king that had been historically known for having an unhealthy interest in his wife's little sister. Obviously I stuck to history a little more than Tudors here and used a different version of Mary for Henry's youngest sister, I thought it was already confusing with Anne's sister and changed it to Marie. I know this is rather rushed but I just wanted to fit it all in a oneshot. I hope you enjoyed it and will review. _


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